Harvesting reels, such as a pickup reel, a draper reel and a gathering reel, are used on agricultural machines to guide the crop to a cutting means as well as, if necessary, a feeding shaft. The reel is supported by a supporting pipe in the center of the reel, the longitudinal axis thereof forming the rotational axis of the reel. The reel includes a plurality of tine rods or bars extending transversely to the direction of travel with protruding tines for engaging the crop. The tine bars rotate with the supporting shaft of the reel. Individual tines are connected to the tine bars and extend generally outwardly and/or downwardly to engage crop material.
On wider headers, the harvesting reel is configured as two or more separate reel sections positioned in side by side relation with a support arm between the reel sections. Hydraulic actuators or cylinders are typically operatively connected to the support arms to move the reel sections fore and aft and up and down.